The U.S. Department of Energy has mandated that solar power costs are to be reduced by 75% by the year 2020. Many other governments in Europe and Asia support the desire to reduce solar energy costs. Even in areas where land availability is not a major concern, the cost of solar panels or a grid infrastructure may be prohibitive.
Optimizing performance of solar panel arrays may be costly and/or difficult because of the location of the panels. Additionally, many solar panel arrays may be exposed to the elements without protection from harsh weather that may damage the panels or degrade the performance of the panels. Shading is a big problem with almost all solar panel arrays. Whether through the accumulation of dust or detritus picked up from the wind blowing to more hazardous weather patterns including hurricanes, typhoons, tornadoes, gale force winds and even simple heavy wind patterns that cause debris to fly through the air.
Mounted solar array systems are bulky and very expensive. Placing solar panels on a roof of a house has several drawbacks including expense, deployment cost, requiring repairs to be performed while on the roof, potential damage to panels, etc. Such roof systems are problematic for optimizing output because the shape of some roofs may make optimization difficult. Further, the addition of energy storage into roof mounted systems further complicates and increase the cost of such systems.
Additional efforts have been made to design devices that use solar panels for the generation of power from solar panels. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,230,819 describes a small deployment system made of a ‘hard drive’-like compartment that is used to store energy produced by one or two panels using mechanical fans. U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2006/0137348 describes an energy station which includes solar panels fixed onto a huge container truck that also has wind turbines and battery storage, hydrogen storage, etc. U.S. Pat. No. 6,396,239 describes a portable solar array that consists of a box with a solar panel connected to it in a similar manner as that suggested by Muchow et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 7,230,819. Johnson et al; (U.S. Pat. No. 5,111,127), Benn et al., (U.S. Pat. No. 6,396,239), Fuji et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,786,851), Azzam's box with wheels and a panel (U.S. Pat. No. 6,201,181), and Glidden's trailer rather than a box (U.S. Pat. No. 5,969,501) discuss various arrangements. Hickson (U.S. Pat. No. 4,481,562) and Bienville (U.S. Pat. No. 4,315,163) discuss solar powered energy stations which are not portable and which have a fixed angle support structure. Simple solar panels that may deliver a few hundred watts, but are not attached to any form of scaffolding such as Spencer et al (U.S. Pat. No. 5,522,943).
The systems and methods discussed herein relate to deliver energy in a practical and easy way from renewable energy source. The systems and methods provide a self-contained, portable system that does not need to be connected to a grid. The system is fully retractable and easily adjusted or angled to optimize energy conversion. The system may provide a deployment system, solar panels, lift mechanism, and energy storage system.